The present invention relates to a separator for removing foreign materials, such as sands and small stones, contained in granulated or round materials, such as red beans, soybeans, sesame seeds, pepper corns and so on, packed in a bag.
In a packed granulated materials like red beans, foreign materials like small stones may be included. If the granulated materials are utilized or cooked as they are without removing the foreign materials, a product made by the granulated materials inevitably contains the foreign materials, which is not preferable.
For example, in case red beans are boiled and cooked for food, if foreign materials, such as small stones, are contained in packed red beans, the foreign materials may be included in the food. Thus, conventionally, when red beans are taken out of a pack, at first, the foreign materials, such as small stones, are removed by hands of a person, and after removing the foreign materials, red beans are boiled.
Removal of the foreign materials by hands is very troublesome. In order to reduce labour for this removal operation, the present inventors completed a device disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application No. 62-14121.
In the device of Application No. 62-14121, for example, since red beans are transferred only by inclination of rollers, if red beans have shapes to be easily rotatable, red beans are transferred to the end of the rollers in a short period of time, so that the foreign materials removing operation can not be made sufficiently. Also, since the transfer of red beans on the rollers is made only by inclination of the rollers, the smooth transfer can not be made. Further, in case the device is stopped in a middle of the operation, red beans may still be transferred by rotation thereof due to inclination of the rollers.
The present invention has been made to obviate the problems, and is an improvement of Japanese Utility Model Application No. 62-14121.
Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide a separator for efficiently removing foreign materials from granulated materials with smooth outer surfaces.
Another object of the invention is to provide a separator as stated above, wherein the foreign materials can be removed regardless the size thereof.
A further object of the invention is to provide a separator as stated above, wherein the foreign materials can be removed from various sizes of the granulated materials.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.